Placerita Canyon Natural Area is a lovely woodsy habitat a short way off the 14 freeway in the western portion of the San Gabriel Mountains. It is in a transition zone between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Mojave Desert. This east-west trending canyon contains a number of trails including the main Canyon Trail which extends two miles from the Nature Center to the picnic area at Walker Ranch and beyond to a small waterfall. There are also a couple of trails that lead up the ridges to the south of the main canyon. The Canyon Trail is mostly level, much of it shaded, and it follows seasonal Placerita Creek along its oak, willow and sycamore-lined course. The property was the site of the first documented discovery of gold in California and was sold by the Walker family to the State in 1950. The Nature Center is open Tue-Sun 9-5 but the park itself is open every day from sunrise to sunset. Unlike my other photo galleries, this one includes pictures taken throughout the year, and in previous years. My visits to Placerita Canyon were on 2/15/03, 6/6/05, 4/8/06, 4/12/14, 3/9/15, 3/11/15, 3/14/15, 3/21/15, 3/28/15 and 4/9/15. I have relied on my own plant list, the Flora of Placerita Canyon Natural Area compiled primarily by Ian Swift, Mickey Long and Daryl Koutnik, 10 July 2001, and the list of species vouchered from there on the website of the Consortium of California Herbaria. The list compiled by Long and Koutnik states: "This list includes all vascular plant species documented in the park." Some species are only identified to species level.

I wish I could say that all of the photos displayed here were actually taken in Placerita Canyon but that is not the case since many of these taxa are not ones that I have seen there. Non-native taxa are indicated by an asterisk next to the common name. See at bottom for Notes indicated by superscript numbers.

1. Var. hololeuca is the only one that has been vouchered for Placerita Canyon, but I have not seen Ericameria nauseosa there. yet
2. I have not personally verified that the Stephanomeria virgata at Placerita Canyon is ssp. virgata and not everyone agrees that the subspecies are even valid. I have never seen it there, but this is what is on Mickey Long's plant list.
3. I'm not sure of the variety of this species. The two varieties occupy large overlapping ranges.
4. The Jepson Manual says that the stem of var. lanatum is sparse- to dense-long-wavy-hairy, while that of var. trichocalyx is glabrous to sparse-short-hairy. Neither description seems to fit the stem in the picture above, but the range makes it var. trichocalyx.
5. The subspecies indicated here is a tentative one. I more or less go along with Tom Chester's analysis that ssp. arida, ssp. intermedia and ssp. tenuifolia should all be considered as a single taxa. See his analysis here.
6. Variety undetermined.
7. Variety undetermined. Picture displayed is of ssp. cymosa, not photographed at Placerita.
8. Variety undetermined. Picture displayed is of var. latifolius.
9. Mickey's list also includes R. speciosum and R. californicumvar. hesperium as taxa that were on previous unvouchered lists not vouchered or documented in the park at this time.
10. Mickey's list also includes H. villosa as a taxon that was on previous unvouchered lists not vouchered or documented in the park at this time.
11. Mickey's list also includes S. asper ssp. asper as a taxon that was on previous unvouchered lists not vouchered or documented in the park at this time.
12. Mickey's list also includes T. willdenovii as a taxon that was on previous unvouchered lists not vouchered or documented in the park at this time.

Willywonka

Willywonka

Willywonka

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